Debt laden Aussies flee Dubai to avoid jail

[NickN]

Yes its O/T but I found this interesting as these former Aussie high rollers are leaving their flashy BMW's and Mercedes cars at the airport with the keys in the ignition and flying back to Australia to avoid jail for unpaid mortgages and loans.

Etihad and Emirates must be seeing an increase in one-way fares if this story is to be believed. It sounds a little harsh you have to surrender your passport over an unpaid debt which is a civil matter. I suppose that it the risk you take if you go there to work.

AUSTRALIAN expatriates are fleeing the Middle East in droves, leaving million-dollar mortgages they can't pay, apartments they can't sell and cars they can't take with them.

In online forums, expats tell of young Australians driving their BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Land Rovers to Dubai International Airport and leaving the keys in the ignition, never to return.

Choosing to stay means facing jail for not being able to pay their debts after losing their jobs.

Dubai's property market has crashed, taking with it the investments of entrepreneurial Australians who made money buying and selling real estate.

Once-prized properties are worth half what they were before the global recession, leaving large mortgages in negative equity.

An Australian man who left Dubai in January said the situation was dire. The man, who did not wanted to be named, continues to pay his mortgage from Sydney because he wants to return to the region some day.

He said many others had fled without speaking to the banks and would be arrested if they ever re-entered the country.

"People are literally stuck; they have no other option," the man told The Sunday Telegraph.

"After 90 days of being in arrears, the banks take legal action, which means your passport is confiscated and you can't leave the country until your trial is heard, or you're put in jail.

"So, if you've lost your job, property markets have crashed and you have no money to pay your mortgage, what can you do apart from leave the country?"

The Sydney man said the entire division of his company had been retrenched since he left Dubai.

Some companies were shedding 500 positions in one hit, and those lucky enough to have jobs were earning as little as half their previous salary, he said.

"It's an absolutely diabolical situation; I've never been happier to be home.

"Basically, what they're doing is forcing people to leave their cars at the airport and get out of the country."

The man, who said Australians had been jailed for not being able to pay their debts, described how a woman and her children were living in their Range Rover while her husband was in jail.

With no job, home or prospects, the hardship facing some foreigners was far from the wonderland Dubai once was, he said.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...013110,00.html